Kids are 6 and 8, and we want to put them in ski lessons for the first time. The closest and best 'beginner' mountain doesn't allow the teachers to administer epipen, but they will give parents a free pass to follow the group in case of emergency. The first couple of lessons they will likely be in the bunny hill area where we can just watch, and not actually get suited up with skis on.

What is your experience with ski lessons? I know with gloves on and no food being consumed over a 2hr or so lesson, the risks are minimal. However, I worry about people eating nutty granola bars etc on the chair lifts, and there being lots of residue on the surfaces. I figured we would ski as a family when they're young and when they're older, they would learn to self-inject and teach their friends how to use the epipen.

A few allergy parents I've spoken to have told instructors about the allergy and enforced the no food rule, let the kids carry their epipens, and parents are on the mountain with cell phones, but are OK letting them go with an instructor who will not administer. DH also thinks it's silly for me to worry about it when the risks are so minimal.

What are your thoughts and experiences with this? Based on what parents told me, I'm guessing the other mountains have the same policy.

This never occurred to us. We had ds in a racing program one year, and have been skiing on the regular for 10 years with him. Either he or his coach carried the Epi, and when it came to snack time they would only eat at the lodge, where one of us would supervise the snack time. My ds was a glove-sucker too - he had a habit of putting his gloved fingers in his mouth in his younger years. Never had an issue. We actually always felt that skiing was an activity where he could be "free" from a lot of worry!

Thanks momtobunches. Did your son's coach get trained on epipen? I'd be totally ok with it except for the fact the instructor won't administer. We are doing one semi private lesson on Sat where we will watch from the sidelines and then see what happens. I think if they continue and get past the bunny hill, even though teachers cannot administer, I will show them how to use it so they can 'help' the child self-administer if necessary. . .

No, we never trained him on it. We just asked him to make sure it was safely carried. The mountain was very busy all the time, and we were confident that if we weren't immediately available, first aid was close at hand. *sadly, I've needed first aid a few times on ski mountains - in Alberta and at Whistler (each knee) - help came very quickly! Our ds was 7 or 8 at the time. We also figured that the risk was incredibly low, so didn't worry too much about it. We ski a lot, and we never see people eating on the lifts.

Just as an update, we went up today for their lesson. The instructor knew about the allergies and we said we'd stay near the bunny hill where we could see them. Unfortunately it was quite foggy today and we couldn5' see them at the bottom, but we had said no eating and figured it was fine. Then, I guess because my kids are good ice skaters, they took to it really easily and the teacher wanted to take them on harder runs after 20 min, and asked about epipen. He said if an emergency arose, he would administer, so I quickly showed him, still implemented the no food rule, got the kids to wear two units each and sent them on their way. Thanks for the all the advice, everyone!

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